130 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



JANUARY 4. 1900. 



Galvin are safe, but some few owners 

 of freight shipped via that line lost all 

 they had on board. It is not yet known 

 whether any will be saved. 



Since writing this letter it has be- 

 gun to snow and indications are that 

 wo are in for a regular old style fall of 

 it. B. T. 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Business has been good the past 

 week, there being an old-time New 

 Year's rush over the balls and parties 

 given. 



Hugh Graham had two large decora- 

 tions and .lulius Wolff, Jr., did the 

 decorating for a wedding at the Mer- 

 cantile Club, which required all his 

 palms and an immense quantity of cut 

 flowers. 



Good Beauties, Brides and Maids are 

 still very scarce. We notice a few daf- 

 fies coming in, but not enough to make 

 it worth while quoting. 



Prices 



Beauties. $3 to $9 per dozen; Brides 

 and Maids, firsts $8 to $15, seconds $3 

 to $S: Kaiserins. Meteors, Morgans, 

 Gontiers, Golden Gate, $3 to $15: La 

 France and Perles, $4 to $8; Liberty 

 $15 to $40 per 100. Cattleyas, .$60; cy- 

 pripediums, $15; carnations, ordinary, 

 .$1.50 to $3; fancy. $4 to $8; hyacinths, 

 $2 to $3; valley, $3 to $5; narcissus, $:5 

 to $4; mignonette, $4; violets, single, 

 50 to 75 cents; double. $1 to $1.50; as- 

 paragus. 50 cents; adiantum. $1; smi- 

 lax, 15 cents. R. 



ChrUtmas Note . 



Christmas, ninety-nine, proved ideal 

 from a grower's standpoint. The 

 weather for the first five days of the 

 week before was clear and cool. Satur- 

 day and Sunday were cloudy, but not 

 until Christmas day did a cold wave 

 reach Philadelphia. The effect of this 

 was that plants, especially plants in 

 bloom, could be safely and expeditious- 

 ly delivered; the blooms for cutting 

 matured rapidly and colored nicely, 

 and everything that could reasonably 

 be expected in flower flowered in time. 

 The result was that the growers and 

 retailers had a splendid Christmas, 



The wholesalers would perhaps have 

 clone better had stock been a trifle 

 scarcer; many growers who retail their 

 product did not require so much extra 

 stock as usual from the wholesale 

 houses. There was more stock to be 

 had at the last moment than usual. 

 Lower grade carnations were very 

 plentiful; the street men had lots of 

 them to sell at 25 cents a dozen. 



Beauties and violets were scarce and. 

 of course, all the choice grades of cut 

 flowers. 



The best Beauty roses were very fine 

 and brought $15 a dozen; as far as 

 known the effort to secure more for 

 them in this city failed. A great many 

 were sold at from $0 to .$12 a dozen; 

 smaller flowers at from $4 to $3 a 

 dozen. 



John Burton had about 400 nic^ 

 Brunners. On being asked the price. 



his salesman airily replied, "Oh, ve 

 are making them pay a dollar." 



For several seasons past the gr?at 

 Bridesmaid growers hereabouts have 

 become almost accustomed to taking 

 down in several senses of the term. 

 Their chosen retailer will beckon them 

 below stairs and there show a choice 

 vase of Maids from some medium or 

 small grower which has astonished 

 them. First it was "Samuelson, of 

 Hatboro," then Savage of Mt. Airy, 

 Jennings of Olney, Knox of Fox Chase, 

 Mortensen of Southampton; now it is 

 Weiss of Hatboro. Such Maids! with 

 deep, rich color, stems thick as Beau- 

 ties, and not a few of them, either. 

 The price for these and a few specials. 

 $25 a hundred; choice stock, $20. 



The feature of the plant trade, and it 

 was very large, was the business done 

 in bloomers. I do not mean to say 

 blooming stock was more popular than 

 foliage plants, for it was not; but the 

 increase was much greater in propor- 

 tion to the business done in former 

 years, and the prices obtained wer^? 

 surprising. Azaleas were very evenly 

 flowered and sold well; also heaths. 



The crowning glory of this class 

 were the new Begonia Gloire de Lor- 

 raine. Our Thorley handled a large 

 number of these plants. It was said 

 he lay awake at night deciding the 

 prices to be asked. His system, from 

 which the growers can take a lesson, 

 was something like this: "Now, this 

 plant cost me $2; it must bring $4. 

 Now. here is one from the Due de Lor- 

 raine that cost $3; it is more than 

 twice as good as that $2 one: we will 

 make it $8. Now, getting $S makes 

 one consider the possibilities of .$9; I 

 must find a plant worth $9!" 



Whether he did is not known, but $8 

 apiece for begonias is a pretty good 

 price, anyway. 



Among the foliage plants, Bostoii 

 ferns and kentias were very good ami 

 very popular. Robert Craig & Son had 

 a $5 sized Boston that was in great 

 demand. 



Now a word tor the consumer. 1 

 think he has every reason to be satis- 

 fied with his Christmas purchases from 

 the florists. Prices were high, but not 

 for poor stock. As good, and in many 

 cases better, value was given for the 

 money than ever before. Fewer or- 

 ders were refused and little delay or 

 damage occurred in delivery. 



GROWER. 



ST. LOUIS. 



The Market. 



New Year's traile. though nothing 

 extraordinary, was fairly good, with 

 choice stock very scarce and prices 

 somewhat lower. The quality of stock 

 that is coming in now is not very 

 good. Shipping trade all through the 

 season was above the average. 



Beauties are a scarce article in this 

 market and the few that come in bring 

 top prices. Brides. Maid, Meteors and 

 Perles bring from $G to $15 per 100. 

 Carnations are quite plentiful and in 



good demand. Scotts, Daybreak and 

 all whites sell from $2 to $4; some 

 fancy ones bring $5. Good reds are 

 very scarce. Violets are scarce and 

 California sells at $1.-50 to $2; small 

 singles, 50 cents. Good doubles very 

 scarce. Valley is in fine demand at 

 $4 and $5 per 100. Romans and paper 

 whites are still a glut and are sell- 

 ing for about nothing. Harrisii not 

 in yet. Callas bring $10 and $15. Mis- 

 tletoe is in great demand, but very 

 little to be had. Smilax sold well the 

 past week at $12.50. 



What the different fiorists say about 

 Christmas trade: 



Riessen Floral Co: Business great. 

 Worked three nights all through be- 

 fore Christmas. Best we ever had. 



John Kunz: Sold out clean; busi- 

 ness better than ever before, with good 

 prices. 



Fred Foster; Had a big stock of 

 fruit and flowers and got away with 

 it all; biggest business yet. 



Ellison & Tesson: Both of our 

 stores did a big business; in fact, all 

 we could handle, with plenty of fine 

 stock of our own. 



Miss T. Badaracco: We did finely; 

 great improvement over last year. 



C. Young & Sons Co.: Had plenty of 

 stock, and trade great; everything 

 sold well, about 50 per cent better 

 than last year. 



Ostertag Bros.: Our business was 

 better than ever. Good prices were 

 obtained for choice stock. Green 

 goods sold better than ever before. 



George Walbart. Mrs. Ayers, and 

 Mary Ostertag, on Grand Avenue, say 

 that they were worked to death on 

 Christmas day; business much better 

 than last year. 



F. C. Weber, Chas. Connon, and Miss 

 Newman sold out early in the day. 

 Business better than last year, yet 

 with better prices. 



C. C. Sanders was well pleased with 

 the holiday trade; sold pretty well out 

 of everything. 



Gus Eggling. Beyer, Schray, Fill- 

 more, Diemer, and Juengel, on the 

 south side, did great business in cut 

 flowers and plants. 



Oscar Heile. on South Broadway, did 

 much better than last year. 



The north side florists. Fred Mein- 

 hardt. Julius Koenig's Sons, Julius 

 Koenig, Jr., Max Rotter, and Brix. 

 claim that this Christmas was better 

 than they expected, especially green 

 stuff: they sold out clean before the 

 day was over. 



Death of H. W. Chandler. 



Harry W. Chandler, who a few years 

 ago was the head of the Chandler 

 Flora! Co., died Tuesday from appen- 

 dicitis. Mr. Chandler was well known 

 among the trade. It will be remem- 

 bered that be took an active part in 

 entertaining the members of the S. A. 

 F. when the convention was held here 

 in 1893. The funeral took place 

 Thursday afternoon from the fafiily 

 residence. Quite a few florists were 

 seen at the house during the funeral 

 services. 



